Category Archives: method

Auditioning for Shakespeare

Will Shakespeare…maybe?

I have an audition coming up. Thank heavens because I haven’t had one in a while. Nothing like not even getting seen to get a girl down, but that’s part of it: grind, grind, grind, rejection, grind, grind, grind, hustle.

This audition is for a couple of Shakespeare plays. I’m to have a verse monologue prepared. I haven’t done anything but contemporary auditions for some time so I’m slightly nervous. But, I’m never not nervous about an audition so that’s par for the course.

How I’m going to prepare:

When I have a classical audition, I always start with: Soliloquy: The Shakespeare Monologues.  I have the women’s version, which, for some reason, is a little harder to find than the men’s version. Not only does the book have the monologues, each entry contains a mini-dictionary explaining unfamiliar terms. Also included is a valuable description of the character. The character profile is helpful not only if you are in a pinch and don’t have time to read the play (NOT recommended) but also to provide you a reference point before diving into the play.

I’ve also recently found Shakespeare’s Monologues. It’s divided into men and women. The monologues are presented in chart form and it denotes whether the speech is in verse or prose.

I try to match the character of the monologue to the character that I’m most appropriate for in the show. Shakespeare’s writing contains some rather similar ladies so, thus far, it hasn’t been an issue.

I will memorize the monologue through the process I described in my post on How to Memorize a Monologue.

If you’re pressed for time:

If you don’t have the time to read the play, the following websites provide plot summaries.

Shakespeare Online: Comprehensive summaries on the plays. Also contains some articles ranging from Shakespeare’s language to information on the Globe.

No Sweat Shakespeare: Super short summaries.

Absolute Shakespeare: Summaries and commentaries on the plays.

Any resources and/or tips that you suggest? Comment below.

How to Memorize a Monologue

I have an audition coming up. It requires two monologues. Most of the auditions I’ve done recently have been cold reads (which I love), so I’ve been out of the memorization game for a while and don’t have any monologues appropriate for the play. Thus, memorization time.
I break memorization down into a series of steps.
First, I take a piece of text, line by line, and build upon each sentence (or phrase if it’s a long one). This way, I review what I previously I learned every time that I add a new sentence.
For example, let’s say that I’m learning “Hey diddle diddle,” the nursery rhyme. First, I would learn “Hey diddle diddle.” I would then add “The Cat and the fiddle.” So my review would be “Hey diddle diddle. The Cat and the fiddle.” Then I would learn the next phrase, and so on, until I’ve built the foundation of the monologue one phrase at a time, always reviewing what has come before.
Next, if I’m lucky and someone happens to be around, I will ask them to read the monologue as I recite it. I am stickler for each word being correct. The author wrote it that way, and my task as an actor is to bring the author’s words to life. I don’t like to cheat by adding in extra “that’s” or “umms.” If I’m wrong, I have them stop me, and I start from the beginning of the monologue, even if I got the very last word of the piece incorrect. Make sure your friend is patient, it can be quite irritating. 
Third, I write the monologue out, by hand. This really helps cement the words for me.
Then, if I can, I review the monologue right before I go to sleep. It is literally the last thing I do before turning off my light.
Finally, I start working on character. Not to say that my ideas haven’t begun to creep in already, but I don’t actively pursue it until I have the words solid. 
People differ, especially on the last step. Further, for me, in actual play rehearsal, character starts to form a lot earlier than my memorization. This is just how I approach monologues. 
One more thing, READ READ READ the play, book, etc. 
How to memorize a monologue